ABBA Arrival (LP) (Vinyl)

At the height of their success, ABBA were second only to Volvo as Sweden's biggest export earners. Arrival (1977) sees the quartet just finding their stride, after a year of relative obscurity which followed the success of "Waterloo," their 1973 Eurovision Song Contest winner. Like their '70s peers ELO, ABBA knew the value of tunes, tunes, tunes. Arrival's hits include the glistening, full-on sheen of "Knowing Me, Knowing You," the irrepressible, piano-led disco stomp of "Dancing Queen," and the almost Cabaret-esque sarcasm of "Money, Money, Money"--all three cowritten by manager and mentor Stig Anderson. The album ends, meanwhile, on an almost Celtic theme with the soaring, wordless title track. Arrival is superconfident and superpolished, and was an unstoppably chartbound record of its moment. --Everett True